About Us

Founder and Director Jigme Tromge Rinpoche

The Padmasambhava Peace Institute was established in 2003 by Jigme Tromge Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist lama of the Nyingma tradition.

Rinpoche was born in 1964 in Orissa, India, where he had the good fortune to receive a traditional Buddhist education. He has had extensive training in the teachings and practices of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and has studied with many great masters of our time including His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and H.H. Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche. He also studied philosophy with Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche and at the philosophy school of Penor Rinpoche in south India. Rinpoche immigrated to the United States in 1988. After completing the traditional three-year retreat under the guidance of his father His Eminence Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, he moved to Chagdud Gonpa Foundation's Bay Area center Ati Ling in 1992 and became its resident lama. Rinpoche now travels throughout North and South America and Asia giving teachings and counseling people with his gentle wisdom and warmth. He is jointly responsible for Tromge and Chagdud Monasteries in Tibet and also the retreat center Kathog Rithro in Nepal. Jigme Rinpoche is also director of the Mahakaruna Foundation, an international charitable organization founded by Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche that offers assistance to the old, sick and impoverished in various parts of Asia, and also works to preserve Tibetan Buddhist culture.

For more information about Jigme Rinpoche and Ati Ling, see www.atiling.org

Padmasambhava -- Guru Rinpoche

Guru Rinpoche, also known as Padmasambhava (the Lotus-Born), is the revered master who established Buddhism in Tibet in the 9th century. Although Buddhism had reached Tibet some centuries earlier, and had been adopted in the 7th century by King Songsten Gampo, it had not yet taken root throughout the vast reaches of the country. Born in what is now northwest Pakistan, Guru Rinpoche was invited to Tibet by the abbot Shantarakshita after the Tibetan king Trisong Detsen was facing obstacles in building a Buddhist monastery -- what was to become Samye Monastery in central Tibet. Guru Rinpoche was renowned in India as a truly great and accomplished master and the abbot was convinced that only he would be able to bring the monastery construction to completion and pacify all obstacles. Guru Rinpoche did just this, and then remained in Tibet for many years instructing disciples and transmitting many precious lineages of dharma teachings to his closest followers, including Yeshe Tsogyal and his 25 main students.

The Tibetan Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism today is generally considered to consist of four schools -- Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya and Gelug -- which each hold further subdivisions of schools, analogous to the different groupings within the Catholic or Protestant churches. While all Tibetan Buddhists regard Guru Rinpoche as a key figure in their spiritual history, he holds most significance within the oldest school, the Nyingma. As the embodiment of complete spiritual realization and the triumph of goodness over disturbing forces, Guru Padmasambhava continues to inspire countless beings through the prayers and practices he taught which have been handed down or rediscovered generation after generation.

The Padmasambhava Peace Institute

The idea for the institute arose from the original plan of Jigme Tromge Rinpoche and his father His Eminence Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche to build a 108-foot tall statue of Guru Rinpoche. That statue was to have been built in Nepal, but when conditions there became unstable, the project was moved to America. The idea of just a statue then developed into the concept of a cultural and educational institute that would be accessible to all sectors of the community. When the property at the Black Mountain Preserve was finally purchased in January 2004, the Institute could then begin to take shape.

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